Optical Printing??

[jvo]

might as well enjoy yourself! if that has to do with scanning and having an outside printer make your prints that's not a bad choice unless you really have your heart set on doing everything in-house. ...

best of luck deciding on the next step!
John

Having had to close my darkroom in the past year and move into the digital arena... what you enjoy is key - not the logistics.

I enjoyed the darkroom, the process, and results. I found I was unfamiliar with anything digital. I'm a journeyman photographer and far from proficient in the digital world. I have found new enjoyment in producing more, and varied types of work. As I've been able to produce more, the quality, and thus enjoyment, of my work has increased - for myself and others.

Good luck.

[jnantz]

John - NO current digital medium that I'm aware of can be correctly labeled as pigment printing. Digital negatives might be involved in making pigment prints, and certain people on this forum do that. And I know people who go from scans to laser etching of all kinds of printing plates. But Inkjet is NOT pigment printing. That's a common error in describing them, with misleading permanence connotations. Those inks are complex blends of finely ground pigments, lakes (dyed inert particles), and rather ordinary photographic dyes. It would be impossible to get a full selection of actual pigments to pass through those tiny nozzles, which is one of the inherent priorities of that technology. It's no skin off my back; but real pigment printers might be sensitive over the misnomer. And galleries certainly exploit the misunderstanding.

Thanks for your opinion Drew, but it's not really what galleries and museums, archivists and other people involved with the the current situation believe .

Have fun!
John

[Jon Middleton]

That's a great entertainment room. What kind of projector? Who gets the middle chair?

The projector is a Sony VPL-HW55ES. The room was finished in July of 2014, so the PJ is 8 years old. Still produces an excellent image. I've tossed around the idea of updating it but there's no real need. The room serves three purposes, as a theater, a place to display some of my photography and a high end listening room. That middle chair is the MLP, or main listening position, when listening to music. Speakers are B&W 800D S2s, powered by a Bryston 4B SST2 amp. Both the speakers and amp, like the PJ, have been superseded by newer models, but no matter. As I built the entire room myself from raw lumber, I usually occupy the MLP. It's a nice place to hang out.

[Jon Middleton]

Thanks for your opinion Drew, but it's not really what galleries and museums, archivists and other people involved with the the current situation believe .

Have fun!
John

So, what is the permanence of the various types of prints under controlled light? I understand that ink jet prints will last longer than me.

[Jon Middleton]

I can see having my color stuff printed outside, some landscape, wildlife, birds in flight, etc. But I can also see doing all of my B&W stuff start to finish. My version of "Fine Art".

[Duolab123]

I still like making optical c prints. For me it's a fun process. I do enjoy making simple inkjet prints from digital or scans of slides. I'm not selling anything. My wife is a retired museum curator and thinks I'm crazy to fiddle with color.. I do love making nice b&w prints on fiber paper. I haven't really fooled around with alt processes. Someday.

My advice is follow your idea of fun. Nothing is wrong, just different

[jnantz]

So, what is the permanence of the various types of prints under controlled light? I understand that ink jet prints will last longer than me.

Hi Jon
Supposedly it's hundreds if not thousands of years ... I'm not exactly sure, the people who sell the inks and papers would be happy tell you if you contact them... Koduck and Wilhelm/IPI (image permanency institute) went on record saying
that RC prints if the process sequence was right, could last as long or longer than any black and white silver gelatin print... but to a lot of people RC is a dirty word and a people out there who will refute everything
claimed by manufacturers but not really say much else.. kind of a black hole but as long as you don't mind making the stuff and making it again in 10-15 or whatever magic number it is, years. should still be fun

Maybe the Northeast Documents Conservation Center might know the answers to these questions they are archivists and help museums and libraries ... ( NEDCC.org ), or maybe someplace like the Getty ... they are invested in purchasing thing made with new and old technology, they probably have a better idea than us common unwashed folks ..

John

[Sal Santamaura]

So, what is the permanence of the various types of prints under controlled light?...

For inkjet prints, it depends on the printer, inks and paper. Most reliable data are here:

https://www.aardenburg-imaging.com/l...-test-results/

[Duolab123]

i wince when Optical Print is used as surrogate for darkroom even though I understand why, when it occurred.

This is an optical print (to me & mine)

I've seen this video at some point in my life. So absolutely amazing. The technology and skills beyond belief. So cool.I remember going to Star Wars, big theater, 70mm??? I almost crapped my pants on the opening scene.

[Drew Wiley]

John - you do know you're passing along total mythology, don't you? Inkjet prints haven't been around all that long. But if you're willing to chime back in over the next few hundred or thousands of years, telling us how those prints are actually holding up over time, please do so. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll still be around long enough to listen. The person or service that has done the most recent work on that particular question is Aardenburg, not Wilhelm.

Otherwise, no kind of accelerated 24 hr chamber "torture" test can even begin to predict all the potential variables, must less extrapolate any of that into an actual number of years. It might identify which specific colorants are more likely to survive than others - and that's the whole problem! The different colorants in inkjet inks are not equal in that respect. So differential fading and color shifts are inevitable down the line, depending on the exact makeup. It was no different with industrial pigments and their accelerated aging tests, except that those were mostly real pigments. You clearly have close to zero actual education on the subject at this point in time. I don't intend that as an insult, but just to point out that it helps no one to blindly pass on ridiculous hearsay misinformation. Any gallery making such claims is either itself misinformed or outright deceptive. Even any watercolor painter knows that different pigments aren't created equal.

And Jon - The whole topic of permanence is quite complex. There are no simple generic answers. But in general, lighting high in UV is bad for just about any kind of color image; so the nature of the display lighting is a huge variable. But it you want to see what a really permanent palette of hues consists of, look at the surface of Mars - real time and UV tested pigments! - but not much of a selection.